WELCOME TO OUR CLUB!

The Caloundra Lapidary Club was founded in 1968. It is an incorporated non-profit organisation and a member of QLACCA (Queensland Lapidary and Allied Craft Clubs Association) and participates in the personal insurance scheme covering members using workshop facilities. The Club currently has around 70 members. We have excellent facilities to help our members learn all these skills, including a saw room, silversmithing room, cabbing room, faceting room, museum and Tea room.

Skills We Share

SILVERSMITHING

Learn how to make jewellery from scratch. Even if you’ve never worked with metal before, we can help you produce jewellery items that you can be proud of. The Club has a range of tools that are needed for most jewellery making. The club provides the facilities and instruction to work with various precious and semi-precious metals including silver, copper, brass and bronze. Silver is the main metal that members work with. As implied by the name, silversmithing describes the art of working silver into usable objects and jewellery. Although many members use silversmithing techniques to create settings for their various lapidary creations, some members choose to work exclusively with silver and other metals to create various objects and jewellery. Sawing, soldering, filing, polishing, texturing and burnishing are just some of the silversmithing skills taught at the club. We also have facilities for reclaiming old jewellery and silver and creating ingots for use in new jewellery.

LAPIDARY

Cabbing as it is more commonly known is the art of cutting and shaping a stone on a grinding wheel to form a domed top, then sanding and polishing the surface so that it shines. The most common cabochons are oval shaped though more experienced cutters will cut any shape that suits the stone limited only by their imagination and skill. Any stone can be cut in this manner, but they are predominantly opaque or translucent, such as turquoise, agate, jasper, lapis lazuli and carnelian. Cabbing is a fundamental skill and will be one of the first activities that new and prospective members will be introduced to at the club. Our very competent instructors are on hand to take you through the initial learning phase and always available for ongoing advice. The club has all manner of cutting wheels, grinders and polishers required for every facet of cabbing. You will be given expert instruction in using the machinery and gaining competency in this skill. There is specially cabbing wheels available for shaping and polishing opals.

GEMSTONE FACETING

Gem faceting describes the process of transforming a rough gemstone specimen into a cut and polished piece usually for setting in jewellery or as an addition to a showcase or collection. Gemstones typically reserved for faceting include diamond, ruby, sapphire, topaz, and garnet, to name but a few. A rough specimen is first cut with a diamond-bladed saw to remove unwanted material. A suitable design template is then chosen to guide the shaping process. The specimen is first held firmly in place on a stick or instrument (called a dop) so that it can be handled and manipulated against a revolving grinding wheel (called a lap). The lap is embedded with either diamond or corundum grit to facilitate the grinding process. An ever-diminishing degree grit coarseness is applied to the stone to reach the desired shape, before final polishing. The Club uses a number of high-quality, precision faceting machines for this purpose. Members can progress to learn this skill after first gaining a reasonable level of competency in cabbing and will be trained by our expert volunteer instructors.

FOSSICKING

From time to time, fossicking trips are organised within easy driving distances of the Sunshine Coast, occasionally we organise long distance trips however. Being part of the club participating in a field trip, means that members are covered by the Club’s fossicking licence and don’t have to purchase individual fossicking licences. Fossicking areas include: Agate creek, Windera/Cloyna, North Brisbane and sunshine coast hinterland. Trips to other areas can be suggested and organised by club members at any time.

MUSEUM

The Club has a wonderful Museum with an extensive collection of rocks, minerals and gemstones. The Museum is open to the public on most Saturdays from 9 am to 12 pm.

LIBRARY & TEAROOM FACILITIES

We have a comprehensive library with a multitude of books that have been bought or donated over the last 50 years. We have topics covering every facet of the hobby including: silversmithing, cutting and polishing gems, fossicking, carving, rock and gem identification and much more.